Mike Bickle emphasizes the power and effectiveness of fervent prayer as described in James 5:16, asserting that the prayers of the righteous accomplish much beyond our understanding. He explains that our ability to pray effectively is rooted in our relationship with Jesus, our confidence in His authority, and our commitment to righteousness and community. Bickle highlights that prayer is not about our feelings but about engaging earnestly with God, regardless of our emotional state. He encourages believers to persist in prayer, emphasizing that even weak prayers can yield powerful results when aligned with God's will. Ultimately, he reassures that every prayer is remembered by God and contributes to His purposes, both now and in eternity.

About James chapter 5 verse 16, the well-known passage, the effective fervent prayer of the righteous avails much. And the phrase I really want to focus on is the phrase avails much. It accomplishes much. Our prayers accomplish so much more than what we can measure with our five senses. And I want to talk a little bit about that. It's a glorious subject. It's the destiny of every believer in Christ to release the power of God. Regardless if we feel tired, if we're in a bad mood, if things aren't going well, it is our destiny to participate in prayers that avail much. The subject is bigger than how we feel or how we're doing. It's based on who Jesus is, what he did on the cross, and what he said about us. That's what James is anchoring our confidence in the reality that it is our destiny to release the power of God. Let's begin in chapter 5 verse 15. Now James was traditionally known throughout church history as a great man of prayer. So his insights into prayer, well, they're biblical. But in his personal experience, that was an area that he was strong and mighty and excelled in. It begins in verse 15, James chapter 5 verse 15. He said, in the prayer of faith, it will save, in the sense of heal or deliver, it will save the sick. In the prayer of faith, the Lord will raise up the one that's sick. Now the prayer of faith, three things come to my mind when I think of the prayer of faith. That is that we would have confidence in the authority of Jesus over the sickness that we're praying against. Or we would have confidence in the authority of Jesus over all the works of the enemy, all the works of darkness. But secondly, the prayer of faith means that we have confidence in the blood of Jesus, that it qualifies us even in our weakness and our brokenness. But the prayer of faith speaks of more than that. That the desire of Jesus to give us good things and to release His blessing in our life. In other words, we're not persuading Him, He's persuading us. So the prayer of faith is confidence in His authority over the works of darkness, confidence in His blood that makes us, that qualifies us to operate in the power of God, no matter how we feel. And the prayer of faith is the fact that He desires to release His blessing in us and through us and to use us as vessels of the power of God. Well, in verse 16, it seems as though James changes the subject, but he doesn't. He says, confess your sins to one another, pray for one another that you'd be healed. Then he goes right on and says, the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man veils much. So he starts in verse 15, the prayer of faith, verse 16, confessing our sin. Then he goes right back to the effectual fervent prayer. James didn't change the subject. What he's saying here is that our relationships within the body of Christ, that's the context of which the prayer of faith operates in. Because in verse 16, to confess our sins, that's not just a random thing. It, that implies there's close enough and open enough relationships where we, we can talk openly about what we're struggling with. It's not talking about telling everybody everything you're doing, but it's talking about deep and open-hearted relationships. And it's more than that because we don't just share our heart. We actually follow with action. We pray for one another. We invest the time, the energy, the commitment to actually stand with one another in the battle. And what James is really saying here is that the prayer of faith or the effectual prayer is in context to the relationships within the body of Christ. Now the testimony of the New Testament puts effective prayer and deep relationships together. They, it never pits them against each other. Now some people are committed to grow in prayer and, but they're weak in relationships. Others are weak in relationship, I mean are committed to grow in relationships, but they're weak in prayer. But the scripture never puts those against each other. They operate together in context in the Bible. Paragraph B. Let's look at this phrase, an effect, effective prayer. Excuse me. Effective prayer is prayer that's in agreement with God's will. Number one. Number two. It's offered in confidence or faith in the authority of Jesus, the blood of Jesus and the desire of Jesus. And thirdly, it's in context to building community relationships within the family of God. Let's just take a moment and look at the subject of praying in the will of God. Now we all understand that's what the Bible says. That's a common principle. First John chapter 5 verse 14. This is the confidence. If we ask anything in the will of God he hears us. And the, and then the idea is that he answers us when he hears us. Now one of the key words is the word anything. What John is saying in this passage is that no matter how impossible the situation seems, nothing is too difficult for the Lord. If it's a terminal illness or a broken relationship or a financial disaster or a door that seems that no power on earth can open that door, John says don't back away from that. If it's in the will of God, you stand your ground and you take confidence and you ask the Lord and you can have confidence that the Lord's hearing us with approval. And he will answer us because to, to hear us is to answer us. That's what it means in the biblical language. For God to hear us means that he's hearing us with approval. Now when he answers us in the will of God, his timing and his methodology, the way that he answers us isn't always what we're thinking. But I promise you he will always answer in a positive way when we pray in the will of God. The timing may be different than we think and the way may be different. Now when we pray in the will of God, we have confidence that God knows our best and God holds out for our best. Even though with great urgency we ask him for things out of the will of God unknowingly, the Lord says no, for the sake of love I'm going to hold the line. You can trust me if I'm not answering you, it's for your own good if we're praying the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous believer. Paragraph C. Now this word fervent in verse 16 is actually the same word as the word earnest in, in verse 17. In verse 17 it says that Elijah prayed earnestly. Verse 16 it says to pray fervently it's the exact same word. Actually the word fervent isn't actually in the, in the Greek, Greek manuscript but it's the word earnestly in verse 17 that the translators put into verse 16 because it's implied. So the actual word is the word earnest, the actual Greek word. So some translators just skip the word fervent but most of them put the word earnest or fervent in there but the Greek word is the word earnest. Now an earnest prayer is an effectual prayer when it's prayed in faith from a life that is committed to righteousness. Now what is an earnest prayer? And it's important that we understand what it is so we don't cancel our prayer life out because I know people over the years they don't feel like they're fiery enough or fervent enough or stirred up enough and, and they say well I'm not even going to bother with it. I'm in a difficult time, I'm discouraged, I'm in a bad mood, I'm tired. I go you know your prayer can still work when you're tired and discouraged and in a bad mood and things going negative. Well I can't get happy and energetic and upbeat about it. Well that's not what this verse is saying. Now I appreciate being happy and energetic and upbeat but that's not what he's saying, saying earnest. And an earnest prayer has two components to it that I want to highlight. Number one, it's persistent and that's what the Greek word actually uh relates to most, persistence. Don't draw back, don't give up, don't give in, don't let go of it, stay with it. Stay with it. You could be in a bad mood, you could be tired, you could be depressed, you could feel condemned. Stay with it and refuse those other lies of the enemy. Just don't say well you know it's not a good day for me to pray. It is a good day for you to pray. It's a perfect day to pray. Well I'm not in the mood to pray. Don't go there. Lock in to what the bible says because the prayer that avails much is an earnest prayer. Stay with it. There's two aspects of an earnest prayer that I want to highlight. The idea of persistence and the idea of being engaged from the heart, being engaged from the heart. Meaning you're, you're not speaking to the air but you're actually talking to a real person. You're, you're speaking to the father in the name of Jesus. Now paragraph one, in Luke chapter 11, Jesus tells a parable and the message of the parable is to emphasize the father's willingness to answer our prayers. In Luke 11 he's saying the father's willing and in the story, it's the story of a man who answers his neighbor because of persistence and Jesus highlights it. He says persistence is important. Then he goes on in verse 9 of Luke 11 after he said because of persistence the man in the parable answered the request of the other. Then Jesus applies the parable. I mean he, he gives the main principle. He says here's the message I say to you in verse 9. Ask and it will be given. Seek it and you'll find knock and it will be answered. But the idea is though the verb ask is in the continuous present tense. Ask and keep on asking. Seek and keep on seeking. It's the idea of perseverance. Now don't get the wrong idea. Perseverance does not earn us unanswered prayer. God requires perseverance but don't misunderstand. Perseverance does not earn you unanswered prayer. Prayer is not about informing God of anything. He already knows our needs before we know them. So we're not informing God and we're not persuading God. He's already persuaded. Actually prayer is about connecting with God relationally and he uses the details of our need in order to enhance the dialogue with us, the connection, the relationship, the conversation. It says I want you to stay in the conversation. Not because I don't know what you're saying. I didn't hear you the first time. That's not the point. It's not that you're proving anything to me. I already know your heart. But in the persistence related to a need we're staying in the conversation with the Lord and it's the conversation. It's the connection that he's after. That's what prayer is really about. It's about relationship and some people get confused about this because they think of well if we pray we're trying to earn something. Lord says no I just want to talk to you more and I want to release my power and blessing to you in the context of talking to you more. Now why God is so interested in talking to me and you I don't know. He is so interesting. I'm not very interesting but he wants to talk to me more than I want to talk to him. That's because at the core of his being he is love. He is infinite eternal love. He loves the dialogue and so he is ordained to release power and blessing and even our own needs in the context of ongoing conversation. That's why he requires persistence. Don't think persistence earns you anything. Persistence is a statement of his heart for you. Paragraph two. When we're asking when our asking is casual we put little focus little effort into the asking. It's not something we really value. The Lord says when you search for all of your heart if you search with all of your heart it's something valuable to you. In other words he's saying refuse to back down. Refuse to give up and give in. Ask. Hold your ground. Stay in the conversation. Paragraph three. Paul called us to perseverance in all types of prayer. In all prayer with all perseverance. Always. This is the element of earnestness. Stay engaged. Stay connected to the Lord. This is the same idea of fervency. Now number four. It's a very important pastoral point I want to make to you. Is that over the years of leading in prayer I run into this all the time. People who disregard and devalue their own prayer life because they can't pray like others. Maybe they'll go to a public prayer meeting and they'll see somebody offer their prayers with great energy and very articulate very bible-based which is good we believe that intense kind of physical emotional energy exerted. That's good. But the guy goes I can't do that. I don't know the bible that well. I can't talk like that particularly on a microphone. It is never going to happen. And so they conclude well I guess I don't have any passion. I don't have any fervency. I can't do that. I don't have the personality for that. I think the majority of the human race can't do that. So you're not alone. And there another guy says well I can but I'm not in the mood. I mean I'm really feeling down. I'm really feeling out and I'm feeling condemned. I'm feeling discouraged. I'm confused right now. And so they tend to give up on their prayer because their idea of what fervent or earnest is it's a wrong idea and it cancels them out and they draw back instead of press in. So it's a very important pastoral point I'm making. When you're tired the Holy Spirit's not tired. You know I was talking I've had this conversation many times the guy goes I'm in the prayer I'm a little tired tonight or the worship team says well we're really tired tonight. I said that's okay the Holy Spirit's not tired. He can still move. It's based on what Jesus did and who he is and what he said. It's not based on how we feel. So don't compare yourself to what you imagine is just like pure fervency and earnestness and cancel yourself out. That's my point. Because the most earnest in prayer in public those that have a aggressive style in prayer and certainly I've had that style for for many years. I get it. I've had people say hey go and pray and they go man I can't do that. I'm not going to pray. I'll look unanointed and unpassionate. I'll look like I'm uninspired and dead. I go no no forget forget me just get up there and pray. But I want to assure you this 99 that's made up number of course 99 percent of our prayer life most all of our prayer lives are the whispers of our heart. Most of our prayer life isn't what we do 10 minutes on a microphone. My point being the 99 percent of our prayer life can't be relegated as non-fervent non-passionate and no no earnestness in it. If you're engaged in the heart and you're persistent you are earnest. Because the majority of our prayer life is a whisper anyway. I mean even if we're articulating it we're not shouting it the majority of our time over 40 years. We're talking to him. Mostly mostly just the whisper of our heart the groans of our heart. I was in the uh store the other day and the mom came over to little Billy. Bed down whispered in his ear when I was walking by a little five-year-old or something like that and Billy if you don't stop it I'm warning you. Mom I mean Billy he was engaged. I mean fear hit me. I went in the other aisle. I said I'm not going there again. Lady never lifted her voice. Nobody could hear her besides me and Billy. That's passion. She was engaged. He was engaged. I was engaged and we were really locked in. My point is just so you don't cancel out your prayer life because of a preconceived idea of what it's supposed to look like to be another person or another personality. That's all I'm saying to you. Top of page two. Paragraph D. James says a righteous person. Now a righteous person it's the fervent prayer of the righteous. They set their heart to obey God. Now this isn't only describing somebody who's so mature in righteousness they never stumble. They never struggle. That's not the person we're talking about. I don't know that guy. I've heard of guys like that. I've never met one. We must seek sincerely to live in wholehearted obedience. Obedience is not optional in our life in the kingdom. First John verse 22 says and whatever we ask we receive because we obey. Now that throws off some people. This isn't the whole theology of prayer. We don't receive because we earn it by obedience and what if that's the only verse you had you might conclude that. Now I want to warn you you'll never earn unanswered prayer by your persistence or by your obedience. But let's read the verse. Whatever we ask we're talking about an effective prayer life. We receive the answer because we keep his commandments. Then he restates it. And because we do the things that are pleasing. What we do and what we neglect to do greatly affects our prayer life. Now I, it's a strange thing that in the body of Christ in the prayer movement I want to talk about. I don't hear myself included. I don't hear much teaching on the necessity to obey and walk in righteousness related to prayer. But it's a profoundly biblical principle. Mostly in our prayer we talk about the authority. We don't talk about the lifestyle nor do we talk about the relational context of community for which the righteous person's lifestyle is anchored in. I'm not saying that as a big criticism. I'm saying that to alert us that most prayer teaching that I give or hear and again I'm putting myself on, you know, I gotta say the issue of obedience more often, mostly emphasizes our authority in prayer. Not our, not the quality of our lifestyle nor the context of being committed in relationships. But I want to tell you that what we do and what we do not do affects our prayer life. Prayer is no substitute for obedience. I've met people that imagine, hey I'm gonna, they want to step over the line in this area of their life and they want to amp up their prayer time, throw in a little fasting, maybe even give more and maybe it balances out and the Lord says no. Prayer doesn't substitute for obedience. You can't cancel out an area of compromise in your life. I mean it cancels out just because you pray more. Now if you're praying about overcoming the compromise, that's good. Now the reason isn't because Jesus has this, you know, intense kind of duty-bound relationship or I mean a view of the kingdom. Sin hinders love. Obeying God is about being unified with his heart. I mean the whole prayer movement and the whole issue of salvation is not about Jesus raising up a workforce that he could anoint. It's about Jesus having a relationship with his family. He's saying, it's not that I mean, it's that obedience is the only place that love grows. Disobedience, whether it's immorality, whether it's anger, whether it's bitterness, whether it's covetousness, slander, whatever, disobedience injures our heart and our ability to walk in love. I mean there's more issues as well, but that's an important part. Obedience is critical. Jesus connected our prayer life in John 14 and our love for God to our obedience. You could read that on your own. Loving God, obeying God and effective prayer life is one subject to Jesus. It's not like, well that guy's into obedience. That guy's into his authority and prayer and that guy just sits in the corner and loves God. No. Those, that's one subject. Because the issue of obedience is the issue of love. Let's look at 1st Peter chapter 3 verse 7. It says, husbands give honor to your wife. Live with her in an understanding way. Why? That your prayers, well there's a lot of reasons why, but the point that Peter highlights that your prayers won't be hindered. I want to assure you this, that if men do not treat their wives right in secret, not just in public, their prayers will be hindered. It's like the Lord is the one standing against the door. You can bind and rebuke all day long in the name of Jesus, but you can't bind Jesus in the name of Jesus if he's holding the door shut. This is a very significant truth for the prayer movement. 1st Peter 3 7 has to do with family life, has to do with humility, has to do with the value of covenant in God's eyes. The guy says, I've had this conversation many times, well I don't like her anymore. I said, well she doesn't like you either. That's not even the point. I mean liking is nice. It's certainly better. There's a covenant that must be honored, because God's a God of covenant. And I tell the guy, I says, you, you don't have to like her, but you do have to honor her. You do have to understand her. You do have to serve her and humble yourself to her. If you're going to have an effective prayer life, you must do that. And what will end up happening, because God so honors the covenant of marriage, the guy that does that will end up getting emotions stirred up again by the Holy Spirit for his wife. Seen it happen many, many times. Guy goes, not a chance. You don't even know. So when you start giving yourself to honor her, you might be surprised what God will do to honor the covenant, even in your own emotions. Well the end time prayer movement is the best place for wives in all of history. There's no better place. There's no safer or better place for a woman in the family than in the end time prayer movement, because the Spirit is going to bring the prayer movement to an all-time high of maturity. And that tells you there's going to be a lot of women honored in their homes. The end time prayer movement's a really bad place for a macho man that's insensitive, that's got an angry spirit, that's impatient, that doesn't want to bother with his wife. Really a bad place to be in the prayer movement. Jesus is saying, we're not going any further till we settle this. You could pray with eloquence in public and talk in a wrong way in private, and Jesus says, your prayers are canceled out. Let's look at paragraph E, James chapter 5 verse 17. It says, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. Then he prayed earnestly, that's the word earnestly that in the, in verse 17, then in verse 16 is the word fervently. But that's the actual word there is earnestly. He prayed there'd be a three and a half year drought, and it happened. Then at the end of the drought, he prayed and the rain came. And in the midst of that, he prayed and fire came down from heaven. All of that's in 1 Kings 17, 18, and 19. You can read the story, it's fascinating. But it's interesting that James is picking Elijah, who's actually known for power. Elijah, if you just read the Old Testament, is not known for prayer. He's known for power. But James, the man of prayer, the apostle of prayer, picks him as the premier example of prayer. I think, well, surely he knew the Old Testament. Well, he starts off by saying Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. He had the same weaknesses, the same temptations. Elijah actually was prone to discouragement and fear. You can read that in 1 Kings 18 and 19. Elijah's, James's point is, he was a weak man like us. Now we might have the shock of our life when we meet Elijah, the age to come. You're talking to some people and, hey, how you doing, and what was it like, or having a great conversation, and telling about your ministry, and gee, what was it like in that time, and how'd your friendship group go, and how were your kids, and hey, by the way, what's your name? I'm Elijah. You're kidding. I thought you'd be different than that. We have this idea that Elijah is Charlton Heston, like Moses in the 18 Commandments, plus some. We might be shocked. He may be really different. Like, you're Elijah? Yeah. No, I mean the Elijah of the Bible, not just, yeah, 1 Kings. That's me. You're kidding. I just would have thought you were different. Oh no, I struggled just like you did. Like, wow. I wish I would have bought into that back when I was on the earth. Well, we'll still be on the earth even in the age to come, but I wish I would have bought into that. James says Elijah, the story of Elijah is not the great prophet of God. The story of Elijah is the great God of the prophet. It's the God of Elijah, not the Elijah of God. He said he's a weak man. Trust me. He's prone to discouragement, prone to fear, wanting to quit. We say, oh, I could, I could do that. I'll relate to that. I think when we, we meet all the great men and women of God in the Bible, we will be surprised how much like us they really, really were and are. But, I mean, not are in the sense they have those weaknesses now in, in the presence of God. Well, here's the point. In James chapter 5 verse 15, they're talking about praying for sick to heal a sick person. And he says, well, Elijah was weak and this weak man prayed and healed a nation. How much more can a weak person pray to heal an individual? If God will use a weak person to heal a nation by the power of God, He'll use a weak prayer and a weak person to heal an individual. That's the logic of what he's doing here. Paragraph F. Now, the summary is that prayer is to agree with the purpose of God, the will of God. In prayer, we agree with God's will, His purpose. Righteousness, we agree with His character and His heart. And fervency, we agree with God's priority, meaning He's urgent about it. He wants us to stay locked in. He doesn't want us casual about this issue. Pray about it every couple times a year. He says, no, I want you to lock in on it. I want you to take hold of it. It's a priority to me. I want it to be a priority to you. I actually want you to engage in this regularly, not occasionally. But agreement is where the effectiveness of prayer is from the human side. The effectiveness of prayer from the divine side is it's the power of God. It's the work of Jesus on the cross. And it's the power of Jesus over everything. And it's the desire of Jesus to share His kingdom, release it through us. But our response is agreement. Agreement with His will, agreement with His heart, that's righteousness, and agreement with the urgency and the importance and the priority, we stay with it. We don't give up on the request quickly. Roman number two, prayer that avails much. Now this is my favorite point that I'm making. I'll go through it quite fast. It's pretty simple. But our prayer avails much. Now the challenge is, paragraph A, we can't properly measure the effectiveness of it. By our five senses, we look at our prayers and we go, they're not very effective. And the Word of God says, no, they avail much, which means they accomplish much, much more than you see with your natural eye. Your prayer for another person or another nation actually changes you. Now we don't see that or measure that very clearly, but it does. It changes the person you're praying for and it changes the nation. But it's more than that. It changes the nation in this age and that prayer is still effective and effectual in the age to come. James is saying there's a revelation of the effectualness, if that is such a word, the, oh I guess that's effectiveness, the effectiveness of prayer, it avails much. There's a revelation that James had that we want to receive by the Holy Spirit because it makes our weak, simple prayers so relevant and so worth doing. When we feel bad, we feel tired, we're all discouraged, but we've got the Word of God, we got the exalted Jesus, we got the finished work of the cross, we have the written Word of God. Beloved, no matter what we feel like, stay with it because it is effectual. No matter what you feel, it's effectual. Well we're going to begin paragraph B. All of our prayers, all the prayers of the saints that are in the will of God, of believers, that's what I mean by the saints, from all of history are stored in a bowl around the throne of, bowls plural, around the throne of God. And these bowls of prayer will be filled in proximity to the second, the timing of the second coming of Christ. The bowls are being filled through history, which means the prayers a hundred years ago and a thousand years ago are still effectual in the presence of God in that bowl right now. The prayer didn't die out, it's still alive if you, if you'll let me use that phrase. Revelation chapter 8 verse 3 tells us it's the prayer of all the saints, not just the prayer of the end time saints, but it's the prayer of all the saints through history. Those bowls are being filled, which means the prayers of a hundred years ago are still effectual. That means that your prayers will still be effectual in a hundred years. Let's look at paragraph C, top of page 3. God never forgets anything that we do that's in His will or in love, out of love for Him. This includes our prayers. Hebrews 6 verse 10, God says, you can charge me with injustice. That, that's the principle here. You can charge God with injustice if He forgets anything you've done in loving Him. And your prayer is included in that. He'll never forget it. I mean that's the whole theological premise behind eternal rewards. Eternal rewards is Jesus expressing how, in the age to come, how He feels about the way you loved Him and obeyed Him in this age. Our love and obedience in this age is not very strong, but He's so moved by it that He gives us eternal rewards in the age to come. Because in the age to come, He's letting us see how He feels about the way we lived now. There's a continuity between the two ages in what we do. It matters what we do lives on because it moves God's heart and it's important to Him. That makes what we do so important every single day. Paragraph D, Cornelius, the Roman soldier, the Gentile, he received the shock of his life one day. Acts chapter 10, verse 4, Cornelius praying, suddenly an angel appears, says, Cornelius, your prayers are a memorial before God, which means your prayers are remembered in the sight of God. They'll be there forever. Cornelius says, what? I mean, think about it. He's a Gentile soldier. I figure there's three or four in his prayer, his prayer meetings. They have, they're not born again. They have no Holy Spirit, no Holy Spirit. They have no written Word of God. They didn't have a Christian bookstore to go buy a Hebrew Bible. They didn't have the Word of God. They have no prophetic worship, no air condition, no Starbucks coffee, nothing. Three or four crusty old soldiers, not that all soldiers are crusty and old, but you know, in the movies, the Roman soldiers are always a little mean. I'm picturing three or four of these guys, no Holy Spirit, no prophetic music, no Bible, no anything, and their prayers are so moving to God. An angel appears in heaven from heaven and says, we'll remember them forever. Beloved, if that's true with a man without the Holy Spirit, without a Bible, without prophetic worship, what does it mean for spirit-filled believers claiming the Word of God in the context of prophetic worship with a spirit of prophecy? Beloved, where are our prayers? What are they doing? They are moving the heart of God. They live forever. Your prayers are effectual. They avail much. Paragraph E, not one of our prayers are ever wasted. I mean, Jesus looks at our life through the, the paradigm, through the prism of the riches of glory. He has so much glory that He looks at our small acts of obedience, He looks at our prayers, and He evaluates them through the riches of His glory. That phrase is mentioned a number of times by Paul. We look at our lives as small and weak and boring. He looks at our obedience through the lens of the riches of glory. He sees what we don't see, and that includes our prayer. Luke chapter 6, verse 38. This is my favorite, one of my favorite prayers on, verses on prayer. Jesus said, give, it will be given to you. Good measure, press down, it will be put into your bosom, for with the same measure that you use, it'll be measured back to you. Someone might say, now isn't that about money? Yes, but it's not only about money. It's about giving mercy. It's about praying. It's about anything that's obedience in the will of God, because the law of the kingdom is, you will never outgive God in your obedience. Never, ever. Mark 10, verse 30, Jesus said, there's a hundredfold return. Every, I'll apply this to prayer, not just to money, or to encouragement, or to giving mercy. You give mercy, you'll receive mercy. Not that you're earning it. That's not what I'm talking about. The Lord is so rich. He is so rich and so generous, that when He gives you a hundredfold return, His wealth is not diminished at all. He's not poor, because a whole bunch of obedient Christians came, like here's the end time generation, the church in glory. Oh no, that's going to bankrupt heaven, because He has to pay out so much. No, it doesn't work that way. The law of the kingdom requires that whatever you give in love, it's returned back a hundredfold more by the richest king, the most generous king. Let's look at paragraph one. When you pray for anyone, a person or a nation, that prayer comes back on you, your family, and your ministry. It really does. You can't pray for Egypt without it touching your family, even though you can't measure it all. It always is returned. When you pray for a person or a place, you gain an inheritance in that person. You have an inheritance in that city or that nation. That inheritance is in this age, and it's in the age to come. Beloved, there's a connectedness whether you can measure it or fully discern it in this age. Although as time goes by, you actually see more and more of it. There's a connectedness to any person or place you pray for with perseverance. You have an inheritance. Luke chapter 16 verse 9, Jesus tells us this unusual principle. He said, you give money to people in this age. When you get up to heaven, when you go in the age to come, they will invite you into their home and tell you about their gratitude for the way you sowed into their life. So you'll be in the age to come, resurrected body. Some lady will come up and say, hey, I'd like you to come on over to my house for dinner. Yes, you have houses and you have dinners. Yes, you have friends. You don't float on a harp and just play, float on a cloud, just play harp. You actually are in a community, in a society forever with the resurrected body. They'll say now, hmm, I don't remember you. She says, well, you gave that $100 to that missionary in Iraq when you're 18 years old. She gave me some food. I came to know the Lord. I just want you to know about how I feel about how you sowed into my life. You go, really? Jesus says, it really does matter. Paragraph two, you pray for your enemies. Jesus, not only does it change our spirit to pray for our enemies, but every prayer you pray for your enemies, it comes back on you. First, I didn't like praying for my enemies because I thought God might answer my prayer. And he does. But he actually causes the prayer to come back on you. You pray for a spirit of revelation for your enemies, you'll grow in revelation. Whatever you give, whatever you use, it'll be measured back to you. Top of page four, just the last two minutes. The phrase I like to use, paragraph A, I've used over the years, God calls us to holy, believing, persevering prayer. Holy, that means we're committed. It's the prayer of faith. And persevering, we stay with it. It's earnest. We don't give up. We don't give in. And it's holy, believing, persevering prayer that flows from relationship within his family. Paragraph C, very simple but often neglected principle, is that the scripture requires us to actually ask, to articulate. You can whisper it. Again, I'm imagining most of our prayers over 40 years are whispered. I mean, we say a lot of them out loud. Over 20 years, over 30 years, anyone that's been praying a long time, most of your prayers, they're whispers. They're even silent. But James says, if you don't ask, if you don't actually articulate it, you don't get it. Because God wants you. I mean, God knows your need. He doesn't need the information. You're not giving him information. You're not informing him or convincing him, persuading him. You're connecting with him. He wants the dialogues what he wants. But when we actually verbalize it and he answers it, then it connects with us how much he was moved by what our, he answered us. You really listened to us. You really do what we asked. Let's look at paragraph F, the value of 90 second prayers. Don't wait till you have an hour. 90 second prayers matter. And then finally, paragraph G, the value of unannoyed. And I put that quotation, uninspired prayers, prayer that you don't feel doesn't mean God doesn't feel it. Don't measure your prayer by how much you feel it. Measure your prayer by what the word of God says about prayer. The fervent effectual prayer of a person committed to righteousness will avail much in this age and the age to come. Amen and amen. Let's stand.